Entries tagged with house: commentary: s3

Right, so everyone has already seen and/or reviewed last night's episode, but I only just saw it (stupid late airing; you'd think our state's team won the Superbowl or something), and I am adding my two cents to the fandom piggy bank.

What I was going to post about last Wednesday before the whole fandom scandal was that I'd watched "No Reason" with my mom the night before—she'd been working her way through Season One and Season Two, having really gotten into the show this season (finally)—and I found myself not hating it. Maybe it was because I was relaxed at the time, or because I've been feeling more distant from the show during the hiatus and that allowed for better perspective, or because I was watching it with someone who hadn't seen it before, or because repeated viewings had beaten the frustration out of me; but for whatever reason(s), for the first time, I was able to sit back and—well, if not enjoy, then at least appreciate the episode for what it was, rather than what it could have been or what I wanted it to be.

I noticed some new things, such as how Elias-whom-we'll-call-Moriarty's wife is the first thing you see after the scene in which he mentions her. Instead of moaning about how you can't deduce which parts are hallucination and which are reality because the show doesn't always achieve verisimilitude on a good day, I admired how they played a little with the medium they're working with, using the artificial scene cut we accept in television and suddenly twisting it into a real-within-canon cut where the character can't remember how he got to be where he is. It's cheating, because we the viewers weren't clued in that the cut was anything but a cut, and it's nothing groundbreaking as far as breaking the fourth wall on mainstream TV goes, but it's still kind of clever. I'd noticed it before, but it didn't stand out what with all the other problems towering over it on all sides.

Another new facet of the episode for me was a series of comparisons to Rodney McKay in Stargate: Atlantis—a show I hadn't watched before the last time I saw "No Reason"—particularly, to McKay in "Grace Under Pressure," when he's trapped in the jumper underwater talking to a hallucinated manifestation of a part of his mind. (There are plenty of ways in which McKay's like House, of course, but there were some things I hadn't thought about before watching this particular episode again.) McKay conjured up Carter as a sounding board because he loves her and believes she's "almost" as smart as he is; House may have chosen Moriarty because he'd proven himself worthy as an opponent by taking House completely by surprise and saying something ("Who'd want to hurt you?") that got House thinking about himself, and/or because House was subconsciously looking for a way to acknowledge the guilt he sometimes feels when he screws up people's lives in the process of saving them. Anyway, comparison. You have Carter admitting straight off that she's not real, and Moriarty calling himself a hallucination; Carter teasing McKay about how he's arguing with himself, and Moriarty remarking over fish tacos that he's really only House conversing with himself; Carter working with McKay to get him out of the jumper, and Moriarty working with House to differentiate reality from hallucination; Carter and Moriarty psychoanalyzing the men hallucinating them, which translates to McKay and House taking a serious look at themselves, and facing, challenging and ultimately accepting something about themselves they weren't willing to at the beginning; and Carter and Moriarty convincing McKay and House to trust their teams to save them when they alone couldn't save the day for a change. House saying, "This is how I think," tossing ideas around in his head, debating, considering, rejecting, deducing, intuiting, holding entire conversations in his mind in mere seconds, much as I imagine McKay's genius brain works. House scribbling equations on a wall like a mad physicist, frustrated when it "does not make sense," and saying, "Numbers don't lie." I wonder if that comforts McKay when his social skills fail him; people may be idiots, may be maddening and incomprehensible, but there is always the ease and purity of math.

So there was that, too. I still don't like the episode, but I like more about it than I did before, so I guess that's something. I just don't like having to watch an episode half a dozen times in order to stop wanting to tear my hair out in frustration.

The difficulty I've had in liking the David Shore-written and -directed "No Reason" feeds into my growing concern about whether House will ultimately satisfy me, if what I want from the series is not what its executive producers are interested in pursuing, or rather if what the executive producers want to explore is not something I'm interested in—or am not interested in anymore, if they've beaten it to death already. (See also: addict/chronic pain sufferer debate and House's circular and occasionally nonsensical existential crisis.) With the exception of his three first-season episodes (the pilot, "Three Stories" and "Babies and Bathwater"), I have not liked most of the episodes David Shore has written (e.g. "No Reason," "Meaning," "One Day, One Room," "Euphoria"). It makes me sad to think that the House series finale will disappoint because what fascinates me about the show is not in line with what they want, or what they want me to want.

Which leads to the concept of watching a show in the "right way," but I'm too tired to get started on that one right now.

Oh but before I go. I was listening to Shore's and Katie Jacobs' commentary on "Half-Wit" over the weekend, wherein, sadly, they once again thought they were being much more clever than they actually were, and despite having all of one to two episodes a year to talk about, were repeating things they brought up in the first season, such as pointing out that they try to have two things going on in every scene, but when the scene towards the end of the episode came up where Wilson comes in to House's office and does that little bow while saying it would be a grand idea for House to come over and have pizza once in a while, they actually said something thought-provoking: that what that scene showed was Wilson realizing that House at least wants happiness. I don't know about you guys, but I was so busy with the "awww"s and the subsequent outrage when House chose to dine with the fellows rather than his lonely, depressed and otherwise neglected friend that it didn't occur to me just how significant that conversation had been. Because it's true: Wilson knew House was miserable and had thought he wanted to be miserable, but in "Half-Wit" House proved he wanted to feel better, even if he went about it absolutely ass-backwards and ended up hurting (even if temporarily) the people who could have supported him to such an extent that he might not have needed or wanted the experimental procedure.

Not as bad as I'd feared—Lawrence Kaplow & Thomas Moran ("Detox") > David Shore ("No Reason," "One Day, One Room"), and the preview (thankfully) once again misrepresented the focus of the episode, and Wilson was there right away and kept coming back—but not that solid or climactic, either.

1. So, mini!brunet!Rodney as a patient tonight, being a genius at chess and whining and insulting doctors and cafeteria workers and calling everyone morons and being afraid that they'd damage his brain (though the kid was far less hyper than Rodney). House even referred to himself as Dr. McKayCane. And referred once to Canada. See, it’s obviously a deliberate allusion on the writers’ part!

All in all, I liked the patient despite the preview last week, was neither bothered nor gripped by what was going on in the Foreman plot, and am not feeling a build-up to the season finale. The preview makes it sound as if they're planning to pack quite a wallop into the last hour, but I'm doubtful. And if David Shore wrote it, as the conspicuous mention of "heaven" of that shot of House (you know the one) makes me suspect, then we're really in trouble. And by "we" I mean "those of us who tend to dislike episodes written by David Shore." Insert sad face here.

Okay, okay, I wasn’t going to, and I’m not, because I need to be in bed four hours ago, but just a little fist-in-the-air first, because ( spoiler )

, and now it is canon. I know it’s sort of ridiculous to post with just that, because all of you will have more interesting things to say about it, and half of you have been writing it into fic and meta for months, possibly based on spoilers (not that the whole thing wasn't entirely RIGHT THERE), which sort of makes this whole thing circular, but. Just. I’m so thrilled to see it addressed on-screen. There just should’ve been more of it. ( followup spoiler )

The original opening line for this entry was going to be, “WTF, Doris Egan, saying there wasn’t much House/Wilson chocolatey goodness?!”

Instead, it’s now, “Well, that was the first House episode that made me cry.”

*wipes eyes*

Fantastic. The sort of fantastic that needs re-watching and proper response later. Doris Egan reigns over all. The sheer range of emotions in this episode, all of them character-based and earned rather than shoved at you, the tightness of the writing, the one-liners, the tying-in of one plot to another, the use of silence. The Wilson presence and depth and House-Wilson interaction. Decent Foreman characterization, and excellent acting from Omar Epps.

More evidence that bad previews make for good episodes. Although in this case, it was more a lowering-of-expectations deal. Like House always talks about. When you expect nothing and you get a very little bit, you're happy.

Uh... that was fairly unenjoyable. Minimal Wilson, big character and ethical issues predicted entirely by having watched the preview, characters being dense(r than viewers, which is never good when you're talking about the medicine on a medical drama), long stretches of nothing.

Yeah. Don’t feel a need to watch this one again, ever, like with “Sleeping Dogs Lie,” which also didn’t bring Wilson onscreen till after the halfway mark and even then made terrible use of him. I wonder if it’s the same writer. *checks* Nope, that was Sara Hess, and this was Russel Friend & Garrett Lerner (an uneven team; “Euphoria Part 2,” “Cane & Able,” “Skin Deep,” “Acceptance”).

Actually, I laughed hardest at a vacuum commercial in the middle. The low-power vacuums made squeaky-toy noises.

ALSO. When I first heard Lucinda Williams’ “Are You Alright”* on the radio weeks and weeks ago, I thought to myself that it would make for a great (if very angsty) fan video or songfic or story epigraph or something for House, particularly if it involved Wilson or Cameron trying to be caring but getting pushed away. I also thought that it was surely too emo to ever accompany one of the musical montages on the show. And then it came on tonight. With a wasted opportunity for someone to do the caring-for-House thing, which would have made sense. But still--I feel so proud.

*And yes, it should be “all right,” but that’s how the title is spelled. It...hurts to look at.

Oh, oh, oh. Yay. “Insensitive” brought the happy like the happy hasn’t been brought in many, many weeks. Now we are back to normal. Funny, snappy dialogue, pleasantly quick pacing, intriguing patient mystery, and at long last, bones tossed to Cuddy and Wilson. Props to writer Matthew V. Lewis, who is almost -- almost -- forgiven for the only other episode he’s written so far, the first half of “Euphoria.”

RSL: I don’t have very many lines, so I will ham it up with my left eyebrow and sardonic delivery. And wear my super-sexy sweatervest.HL: You’re only dressing up because you’re worried I’ll stop paying attention to you now that I’ve won all these awards for my brilliant acting talent.RSL: ...HL: You do look hot in it, though.

Hey, has anyone ever done an MST of an episode as a review? Like with House and Wilson providing commentary? That could be fun.

ETA Wed.: You know what else I liked? House eliciting three equally plausible explanations from Foreman, Chase and Cameron that "explain everything" and then declaring his own diagnosis. Not only does it feature teacher!House and demonstrate that each of the fellows has learned enough to produce a complicated and obscure diagnosis (albeit with a bit of extra coaxing for Cameron), it also harks back to his conversation with Cuddy in... "Damned If You Do"? that their current diagnosis explains everything, and if it turns out to be wrong, they'll find another one that explains everything. That's one of the great things about his job, about medicine and about the show; just because there's a clear answer at first doesn't mean it's the right clear answer, and with trial and dramatic error they (almost) always (eventually) reach the correct conclusion.

And... I think that’s all for now, folks. Apologies in advance for the expected delay in comment replies and review-reading. To contradict the great philosopher Jagger, time is not on my side.

Actually, one of my favorite parts of the hour was when this ad came on for Fox News with the teaser, "Romance is blooming on House -- find out which two co-stars got engaged, tonight at 10," and the clip playing during the voiceover showed Hugh Laurie-as-House to catch viewers' attention, followed by Jennifer Morrison and then … Robert Sean Leonard. WTF. Do they not know who Jesse Spencer is?

Sick last night, maybe from dehydration. Went to bed immediately after House wondering if my eye, head or stomach would explode first, and was haunted by the image from the next-to-last scene all night in between graphic dreams, the last of which featured a prolonged escape attempt and getting shot and ( cut for the super-squeamish. )

And at one point House was there, so drunk he was slurring, the alcohol loosening his self-control enough that he used his observational/intellectual skills to help his friends for a change and in his usual "you are all idiots" tone was telling Wilson and then Stacy exactly how to solve their problems.

Who knows. I've had far stranger dreams, but the thing with the bullet and nerve fibers was the most vivid of late. I blame House and the fact that when I woke up, both my arms were crossed under me and tingling.

Still feeling weird today. Haven't read everyone's episode reactions and haven't written mine yet. Getting there. All I can offer right now is this list of some of what I want to touch on in the actual recap, if I get around to it more than I thought.

Going to bed on time Tuesday night instead of fleshing out an episode review? Doing work at work Wednesday morning instead of perusing people's posts? It's a turvy-topsy world, as Willow once oh-so-cutely quipped.

Hey, folks. Sorry for prolonged radio silence, both on the posting and the replying-to-comments fronts. Haven't been feeling quite myself lately; not so good for the creativity or the sociability.

First, a very happy and very belated birthday to lysa1 and noydb666. Lysa, I miss your wonderful sarcasm and wish you didn't live half a dozen time zones away. Here's to another year of your deliciously naughty fic and beautiful art. Noydb, you've got some fascinating insights and I'm looking forward to getting to know you better. Many happy returns to both of you.

Quick update on life: Thanksgiving weekend was nice, if too short -- got to meet some new people and see old friends, cooked and tidied a lot, attended a concert (Ryan Star), saw a play (Little Dog Laughed) and rented a movie (Amores Perros -- unofficial Oscar nominee for Highest Number of Dead or Dying Dogs on Film Ever). And brooded, but that's not much fun to talk about. I hope those of you who celebrated had a nice holiday and those of you who didn't celebrate had a nice not-holiday.

Watched Goblet of Fire Wednesday night and noticed for the first time that Voldemort's tongue is forked. Guess I was always too distracted during the part where he's pressing his thumb to Harry's scar and imitating his cries to see the double tip when his tongue slides out. Very cool.

My brain also pinged on the foreshadowing of Arthur's "That's my boy!" at the World Cup, after Crouch et al fire their collective "Stupefy!" at the trio. Man, that line still wrenches the proverbial guts at the end. Relatedly: kabale, you may be pleased to know that there's a little post-Patronus you-voice in my head that comments on the painful irony when the band strikes up at Harry's reappearance.

Hey, yeah -- remember when I used to post about fandoms other than House? Here's a little something to make up for it. Sort of a disjointed and hastily-written musing on heroes, solitude, teamwork, facing enemies and hitting rock bottom that I want to try to get down before any more Tritter episodes air.

This is what happens: A series teases me with slashy jokes, I circle it warily until it seduces me with top-notch writing and acting, I let it in, and then it causes me PAIN. Character-driven pain, that is, not poorly-constructed-show pain. Why? Why must there always be pain?

And why is it so much fun to curl up on the couch and wail about the rending heartstrings?